It is desirable that the receipt of a message by a selective call receiver (e.g., pager) have a high probability of proper reception. Accordingly, to adequately serve large geographic areas, some paging communications systems simulcast (i.e., transmit the same message at substantially the same time) from several transmitters strategically positioned to provide wide-area coverage (such as through out a city). To obtain even greater coverage, one known multi-city paging system employs satellites to transmit paging messages to ground repeaters in approximately eighty cities so that their customers can be paged while travelling in any of the covered cities.
While it would be desirable to communicate paging information directly from the satellites to the paging receivers, this has been heretofore impractical since in-building penetration of the satellite's low power transmissions do not adequately ensure a high probability of reception. Thus, whenever a paging user entered or abided within buildings having a metal superstructure, the probability of receiving a paging message directly from a satellite would be unacceptably low. Accordingly, a need exists for a paging communication system that provides everyone with convenient, reliable and efficient paging service.